Monday, January 28, 2013

One of my pet peeves is when I sit down at a bar for the first time and the bartender asks what they can get for me without giving me the menu. "Uh, the menu, please" is typically my response. This one takes it a bit further. As he handed me the menu, he says that they have specialty cocktails but they can make me whatever I wanted, like Jack n Coke ... Right. Either he thinks I'm a Jack kind of girl or that's all he knows how to make, but either way it did not seem promising.

I had chosen The Roof on Wilshire for New Year's Day brunch partly because I remembered reading good things about their hot cocktail menu. Granted, Caroline's review was from winter the year before, but I was hoping maybe they'd kept at least some of them - or the quality - for a year. I didn't see any hot drinks listed, though, so I asked the bartender. Apparently the page with the hot drinks list was missing from the menu I had, so he said he'd get me one. Ten minutes later he asked what I wanted to order. "Um, the hot drinks list?"
"Oh, yeah!"

This happened two more times. Luckily I had plenty of time waiting for my party of ten friends who are always late.

Finally, I got the "hot drinks list" which only consisted of a hot toddy and some kahlua whipped cream concoction. That was what I waited 20 minutes to read? Huh. I finally settled on a jalapeno-mezcal cocktail. Not bad, quite spicy.

Finally my table is ready and my friends arrived. The New Year's brunch deal here was a "3-course" meal for around $25 if I remember correctly.
The first course listed some bread and pastry selection, but as I tried placing an order for a croissant, they said they're just bringing a "bread basket" to the table. The "basket" turned out to be this plate. Not bad, but ... the same plate that they brought for the 10 of us they brought to tables of 4. There's also only one croissant and one bacon cheddar biscuit. Which meant I didn't get any. I asked them for more croissant about half a dozen times, which were always answered with "I'll bring them right out" but never appeared.

Thankfully, the main course was good. I got the Chef Eric Greenspan's famous pancake lasagna and it did not disappoint. It's interesting and very satisfying. Stacks of pancakes with egg, cheese, bacon and sausage in between, with maple syrup, of course.

The other entrees like the blueberry waffles and eggs were also good.

The dessert "course" couldn't really be called a "course", just a bite sized shortbread with cream and blackberry.

No, they're not giant blackberries, they're just small shortbread.

I should've known that a brunch prix fixe on New Year's Day wasn't going to be a great deal, but The Roof on Wilshire's menu certainly sounded more promising than it ended up being. The pancake lasagna was still good, but with the service (or lack thereof) and the cocktail menu that seemed to have gone down since last year, the only salvation seemed to be the view. Unfortunately, that's not enough to draw me back. If I wanted Greenspan's food, I'd rather head to The Foundry on Melrose.